


Welcome home

by mitaharukai



Series: You are my home [1]
Category: Love Live! School Idol Project
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-29
Updated: 2020-04-29
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:00:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,237
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23914204
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mitaharukai/pseuds/mitaharukai
Summary: You missed the way your heart beats wildly against your ribcage as she says she loves you. You missed her, your home
Relationships: Nishikino Maki/Yazawa Nico
Series: You are my home [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1759909
Comments: 10
Kudos: 30





	Welcome home

**Author's Note:**

> With all the love for all the heroes out there risking their lives to fight this virus by healing us, protecting us or providing us of everything we need. For those who got infected and fight to get well and those who sadly left us. We’ll get through this, stay strong ♡

**  
Welcome home  
  
**

The air never felt this heavy. It feels as something is oppressing your chest, squeezing your lungs so hard that not even a single molecule of oxygen can break through your system.

Even though you haven’t been a doctor for that long, you can easily recognize the smell of death floating around the atmosphere, you just never had to face it neither so vividly, nor for so long and it’s because the apparition of a new virus in form of pandemic, the coronavirus or covid-19.

The first time you heard about it, you knew the virus was something to be aware and serious about so you ran to the pharmacy and bought several masks, gloves and hand sanitizer solutions for all your loved ones which included your family, the μ's girls and of course Nico and her family. You still remember the look in everybody’s faces thinking you were exaggerating but in less time than thought, the virus was already making its appearance in the city and for the first time, you found yourself not knowing what to do even if you already made a contingency plan.

Emergencies were an absolute chaos. People were everywhere, sat as they could in chairs, laying on the floor or simply standing still for hours, waiting for their turn, for a chance to be checked in hope they didn’t have nothing serious or the virus itself so they were able to go back home. And just like that, soon enough, coming back home to Nico stopped being an option for fear of infecting her and all the risks that could come from it.

Your chest still stings remembering that conversation and how hard it was for you having to explain her that you wouldn’t be coming back home in sometime in order to prevent her from getting infected or sick because of you. Tears kept running down her beautiful face as your words resonated and she found herself unable to help you, neither to be with you but it was the only way to keep her safe, no matter how much it hurt you both.

The initial chaos led to something much worst. There wasn’t enough room for everybody at the hospital and new areas had to be set up as new doctors came to help but it felt like even that wasn’t enough as people didn’t stop coming to the hospital with new symptoms. The protective material started to run out in no time and ventilator machines soon weren’t enough for all those who were in critical condition and in need of oxygen to try to survive. Rapidly, all hell break loose taking with it hundreds of innocents lives. And one of the hardest parts of it was not being able to heal them as a doctor, not being able to offer any comfort or cheering up to them. But the absolute worst part of all it, it’s having to choose who lives and who dies, playing to be God with their lives. Lives that won’t come back, families destroyed without the possibility of saying goodbye to their loved ones or even properly hold a vigil in consideration. Lives and bodies having to wait to rest in peace after this tragedy ends.

The more you think about it, the harder it gets to breathe with normality and soon you find yourself gasping for air, gripping hard the window frame, trying to inhale as much fresh air as your nostrils and lungs are capable of. As you calm down eventually, you feel the chilly breeze hits your face, bringing soft raindrops, being a long time since you felt the rain pouring down and washing everything away with it, even if it was just temporally.

Returning to the hotel never felt so empty and dull and instead of throwing yourself exhausted at the bed to rest after another endless shift at the hospital like you’d usually do, you quickly open skype to video call Nico and not being able to hold it for any longer or having to stay strong and optimistic about the situation, you end collapsing in tears in front of her image. You tell her about the nightmares that fill your dreams every night, nightmares of people taking their last breaths as they leave that terrorizes you, the smell of death impregnating the hospital all the time, making you feel nauseous. As you relate her everything about your days and nightmares, your breathing starts to become erratic as tears come down your eyes in a hard way, not stopping for a second so you can take a look at Nico to calm down and breath properly again. Nico talks to you but you can’t hear her, it’s like she’s way distant and her voice can’t completely reach out for you and soon, a soft melody fill your hearing, the sound of her quiet voice singing to you to try to soothe you. As your tears dissolve into a soft hiccup, she smiles teary at you and insults you in a playful way for making her emotional and have to sing without preparing her voice and messing her beauty facial mask ritual. You laugh along with her and she doesn’t realize how she’s never been so beautiful to your eyes as she is right now after what she did only for you. You’ve never been more grateful in your life for having her by your side no matter how hard the times are.

Somehow, even with kilometers of distance and a screen in between you two, you find comfort in her words and actions, you find strength and courage in her smile to keep giving the best of you to fight this virus, to try to stop it to advance more and preserve people’s lives, especially hers, the most important one for you and with that, with her fond smile and kind eyes aimed at you and for the first time in what feels forever, you smile widely back at her.

Your hand grips tightly your married ring hanging around your neck, thinking how lucky you’ve got when a certain petite and annoying brunette appeared in your life, messing it up and with all the bickering and soft sides of her, she found a way to win your heart and start to be the one guiding you, being your light in the middle of all the darkness that surrounded you, still does, pushing you forward to continue. You never missed her more than you do right now.

You never missed so much the way she yells at you to leave the shoes at the entrance because she washed everything and you’ll ruin it with the dirt. The way she pouts as you mess with her after she put on one of those strange facial masks for her beauty ritual. The smell and taste of her cooking and those embarrassing bentos she prepares with so much love and care for you to take to the hospital. The way her body feel against yours like the most beautiful melody ever created… you really miss her.

Days keep passing by turning into a month, making the situation to steady slightly and get easier, although the situation in ICU’s keep being critical, at least people aren’t collapsing that much the emergencies and the hospital slowly recovers back the normality it used to have, somehow it recovers a little of humanity again too. Death is not the only thing floating over the air, now it’s also life and hope, the strength to keep fighting to get over this. Painful cries are now fading and being replaced by soft laughs and songs to keep the moral up and the dailies applauses are a boost to keep helping and healing everybody with everything you all have. Sometimes, that’s what saves you from not falling for the weight of those who sadly couldn’t make it and join to that happy symphony.

One of those days, a box arrives to the hospital, addressed directly to you and when you open it and see Nico’s signature on the inside’s letter, you panic, running outside the building to see if she’s still there for real and call her phone to make sure you’re wrong and she’s safe at home. Turns out you worry too much as she heard you out and barely leaves the house except for the essential things and super protected like you ask her to, coming immediately to your mind images of disguised Nico going to watch the A-Rise performance or sharing out flyers in Akiba, making both of you giggle at it and all your fears disappear again. The box is nothing but a face cream used to regenerate the skin so all the marks and wounds given by the masks and glasses would slowly faint out after applying it. Of course, even with the low quality of the camera and the dim light of the room in your skype times, Nico wouldn’t fail to notice them and you feel touched by the attentions she gives you. Later that day, in the intimacy of your hotel room, you apply it and send a picture to your wife which replies instantly with a video of her laughing at you. This, these little moments, are the ones that keep you alive, the ones you save in your heart as the most precious memories in these times…

But not everything can be good and as time passes by, sometimes faster, others slower, the tiredness of your body gets worst and the tightness on your chest intensifies to the point of not letting you breath easily and having to stay at the hospital bed after testing positive in the covid test and the fear of what might happen and Nico knowing about it, make you hid it from her and ignore her calls for a couple of days until you can’t cover it up more and confess it to her, fighting because of it.

You never saw her so angry and hurt before, she never hung you up the phone not wanting to talk to you more or know anything anymore and that silence treatment lasts for some days, squeezing your heart until it hurts and crushing your hopes, scared of losing Nico and not being able to do anything about it, almost compromising your recovery as you feel weaker from so much crying and so little eating.

One of those lonely nights, now on the medicalized hotel, a familiar ringtone can be heard resonating in the quietness of your room, contrasting against the rain outside at ungodly hours ahead on the night.

\- Nico? What’s wrong? Are you okay? – you ask in a rush, barely breathing by fear.

\- No… I just – she shushes up. You’re about to ask her again when you hear her soft but shaking voice over the phone – I just missed your voice.

And you cry, you two cry hard missing the other, saying “sorries” and “loves” you in equal parts until you fall asleep hearing the other’s breathing as if you two were sleeping together in bed as always and everything feels right again, there’s still a light guiding you back home in the middle of this darkness and you’d hold it really close and tight to not lose it anymore.

After almost a month and what feels like an eternity since all this started and two negatives tests, you’re free and able to go home in the middle of the night, excited to see and surprise Nico again.

You stay outside your house, staring the building and admiring it before entering and be received with the overwhelming warmth it always provides.

As Nico hears some noise, she gets out of the kitchen with a spatula in hand ready to hit whoever dared to break in her house and disturb her peace only to throw it to the floor as soon as she sees you. Her hands soon find her mouth and cover it trying to silence a drowned cry as tears start coming down her face and she runs to your arms with full force, burying her teary face in the crook of your neck, holding you tightly in her arms like there’s no tomorrow. You smile, embracing her tightly in your arms, burying your nose in her hair, inhaling her sweet cocoa shampoo scent that you came to love so much.

\- I’m home – you say between tears, hugging her tighter if possible.

\- Welcome home – she sobs into your neck, leaving a light kiss on it.

Soon, your arms surround her petite waist as your lips find hers, melting into a desperate but sweet kiss, and her hands sneak around your neck then get lost tanggled in between your locks. You missed this. The sweetness of her kisses, the kindness of her vibrant eyes looking at you and undressing your soul. The softness and gentleness of her touch sending shivers all over your body as her fingers trace a melody along your skin, memorizing you again by heart after several months away. The way her body presses against yours, fitting perfectly and the feeling of her arms surrounding you, being your home, welcoming you into it. The warmth of her voice calling you tomato, like your little dwarf always calls you affectionately.

You missed the way your heart beats wildly against your ribcage as she says she loves you. You missed her, your home.


End file.
